
PRESENTED BY 



4 



tl>e Old Paths? 





A BIBLE 

AND 

DENOMINATIONAL STUDY 
FOR METHODISTS 

BY 

SAMUEL F. COOK 



LANSING, MICH. 
1898 




PRESS OF ROBERT SMITH PRINTING CO. 
LANSING. MICH. 



74- . /£a*~4~4uUl£. 



Where Are the Old Paths? 



" Look ye out among you seven men of 
honest report, fuu, of the holy ghost and 
of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this 
business. 

" But we wild give ourselves continually 
to prayer and to the ministry of the word." 
— Acts vi, 3 and 4. 

At the time of the recent session of the 
Rock River conference, one of the great 
Chicago dailies, in an editorial intended to 
be highly eulogistic of both the Methodist 
Episcopal church and the body of men 
which was then convened in that city, ad- 
ministered, without knowing it as we 
may suspect, a most stinging rebuke to 
the whole body of Methodist preachers in 
the following words: 44 Other Protestant 
churches have preachers as pious, as learned, 
as eloquent, and the Catholic church has 
pastors as proficient in the work of organi- 
zation, but the Methodist Episcopal church 
is peculiar in its demand for ' all round 



4 



WHERE ARE 



men.' The Methodist minister is in large 
degree the business manager as well as the 
spiritual adviser of his church." While 
there is not a little reason to fear that the 
words used tell the naked truth, if it be a 
truth, a sad day, indeed, has come upon 
Methodism. 

The day is not so very distant when it 
was customary for Methodist ministers, 
when gathered together, to sing with that 
rare unction which made their singing fa- 
mous, the following stanza of one of Charles 
Wesley's hymns: 

" His only righteousness I show, 
His saving truth proclaim; 
"Tis all my business here below; 
To cry " Behold the L,amb! " 

But now, alas, the "all round men," 
whose thought and time are engrossed with 
the " financial interests" of the societies 
over which they bear rule, and the well 
nigh unlimited "causes" for the glorification 
of the denomination, which must be properly 
presented and urged upon the "prayerful 
attention " of their audiences, have scarce 



THE OLD PATHS? 



5 



any opportunity to preach 4 4 Christ and Him 
crucified," or to exhort, with hearts over- 
flowing- with love to God and men, 44 Behold, 
behold the Lamb." 

The financial management of a business 
corporation (and that is just what the 
modern church society has become), and the 
winning* of souls to the Redeemer, are incom- 
patibles which will not mix. 4 4 No man 
can serve two masters; for either he will 
hate the one, and love the other; or else he 
will hold to the one, and despise the other," 
is as true in this case as in the one to which 
it is usually applied. A keen interest in 
the financial affairs of a church society and 
the ardent g-etting* of funds for its needs and 
ambitions, is not a whit different from the 
ardent g-etting* of money for one's own busi- 
ness needs and purposes; it beg*ets a covet- 
ousness which while it is g-lossed over by the 
thoug*ht that it is 44 for the Lord," eats like 
a canker into the heart, and takes away the 
power of earnest, longing exhortation, 
44 Behold the Lamb." But worse than all 
else, the exhortations to flee the wrath to 



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WHERE ARE 



come, uttered by a man who is a money 
getter, or " church beggar,'' are not unfre- 
quently understood as sinister in their pur- 
pose; the worldling- who listens to the 
exhortation saying- to himself, even if not 
aloud, " All he is after is to g-et me into his 
church so as to g*et at my money easier." 

It is quite evident from the words of our 
text that the apostles reg-arded the ministry 
of the word and the prayer necessary there- 
to, as the work of specialists rather than 
of " all round men." They had found that 
they could not fulfill the duties of almoners 
for the growing- assembly and devote the 
necessary time to their prayers and the 
proclamation of the g-ospel; and regarding 
the latter as that of most importance, they 
decided to drop all else and devote them- 
selves wholly to the preparation for and the 
declaring of the glad tidings of salvation. 
If the apostles had been of the type of 
modern ministers, they would have been 
obliged to scrimp their prayers, shorten 
their sermons and work unremittingly in 
devising ways and means by which the col- 



THE OLD PATHS? 7 

lections for the ever multiplying- denomina- 
tional causes might be increased, instead of 
leaving* those matters for persons especially 
fitted and chosen therefor, while they pur- 
sued the quest for souls. 

The demand for " all round men" is 
working- like a dry rot to the spiritual ruin 
of the men, who, if allowed, would gladly 
preach the g-ospel earnestly and fearlessly, 
and is sapping- the vitality from the laity 
who oug-ht to feel an earnest desire to be 
active in such things as go to make up the 
christian life and character. 

The 4 'demand" compels the i4 all round 
man " to attempt to be, whatever his per- 
sonal limitations, a pulpit lecturer, instead 
of a preacher of Christ's gospel. At least 
once each Sunday he must appear before his 
congregation with subject, words, forms of 
expression, intonations and gesticulations 
intended to minister to the esthetic element 
of their natures rather than to arouse them 
to action: to sooth rather than to alarm: to 
quiet their lurking fears rather than to dis- 
turb them: to help them congratulate them- 



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WHERE ARE 



selves that they are very good people rather 
than to make them feel that they are miser- 
able sinners. He must delve in the realms 
of literature, art, science, history, archae- 
ology, and draw thence material to amuse, 
instruct, interest, rather than, after holding- 
communion with the living- God and deriv- 
ing- lessons of holy truth from the words of 
the world's Redeemer, that he should, with 
overflowing- heart, proclaim the messag-e of 
salvation. 

The "all round men" are led to spend 
more time and thoug-ht in denominational 
boasting- than is profitable for them or edify- 
ing- to their hearers. The ordinary listener in 
Methodist congreg-ations mig-ht fairly sup- 
pose that the Methodist Episcopal church 
was the only one of the denominations 
engag-ed in the carrying- on of foreign mis- 
sions, or in fact the only one which is doing- 
anything- worthy of note. The " all round 
man " has little opportunity for thoug-ht in 
relation to the whole body of Christ's 
church, which is made up of the great body 
of believers all unorg-anized but faithful 



THE OLD PATHS? 



9 



and scattered far and wide, since his vision 
is closely hedged in by the limits of his 
denomination; and he is able to say or do 
little that will give his flock any broader 
view of Christianity and its vital forces. 
He is a slave to his environment, goaded on 
by what he deems to be the "demand," and, 
with rare exceptions, may be described by 
the homely expression, " jack at all trades 
and good at none." It must be noted, how- 
ever, that the probabilities are that the 4 4 all 
round man" will be weakest at the very 
vital point, the ability to preach Christ and 
Him crucified with such living power as 
that sinners will be pricked to the heart, 
and led to avail themselves of the benefits 
of the atonement. 

A man who is really in earnest in his 
work for the salvation of men has neither 
time nor inclination to be an "all round 
man." When he assumes his work at the 
dictate of the bishop, he is ready to declare, 
" I determined not to know anything among 
you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
He knows full well that if by God's help he 



TO 



WHERE ARE 



is able to get his membership thoroughly 
aroused with gospel ardor, and sinners 
pleading for mercy, the financial affairs of 
the congregation will, with the active inter- 
est of the regularly constituted church 
officials, take care of themselves. 

The services of the " all round man" are 
an actual detriment to the society over 
which he has been appointed as guardian of 
their spiritual life. The demand which 
makes such an anomaly possible, is the 
result of the disposition, innate in the human 
heart, to have its acts of piety done by 
proxy. It is much easier to pay some one 
to do the right things which all admit to 
themselves ought to be done, than to be 
burdened with the care and responsibility 
of the doing. We complain that we have 
no time to share in the detail of the work 
and interests of the society to which we 
belong, and insist that the care, labor and 
enthusiasm which we feel ought to be given 
to the cause we profess to love, shall be 
bestowed by some one in our stead; and who 
so convenient as the man we call our pastor, 



THE OLD PATHS? 



ii 



since he must of necessity know the various 
needs, and his salary is already provided 
for. The poor man thus imposed upon, 
feeling that since he is the servant of his 
flock he must do everything- which is left 
undone by others, plans and devises ways 
and means for the conduct of the society's 
affairs, grinds at the large amount of cleri- 
cal ^vork necessary for the proper records, 
correspondence and accounting-, attends the 
social g-athering-s, where he receives unlim- 
ited advice as to the work he ought to do, 
and comes to his pulpit on Sunday morning, 
worn in body and jaded in mind, and with 
thoughts sadly awry from those which are 
necessary to a soul stirring exhortation to 
saints and sinners to be reconciled to God. 

Change is not always improvement. The 
flight of years does not necessarily signify 
real progress. Methodism, as originally 
devised, placed the r financial affairs of 
the society in the hands of the laity. 
The stewards devised the ways and means, 
and the class leaders collected the contri- 
butions and paid them over to the stewards 



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WHERE ARE 



for their disbursement. The societies being 
divided into classes of about twelve it was 
the duty of each leader to see each member 
of his class at least once a week, and receive 
what each one could afford for the "support 
of the gospel." While the leaders were the 
special spiritual advisers of those committed 
to their care, they were the ones whose duty 
it was to urge liberality in the aid of the 
work of the society, and the authorized col- 
lectors. The abandonment of this phase of 
the duty of the class leaders, is directly 
responsible for the labored sermons on 
"Christian giving," and the long evening 
sessions of the "official board," while they 
formulate and elaborate "plans," and finally 
fall back on that easy escape from their 
troubles, the adoption of a resolution in- 
structing the pastor to make his greatest 
effort in wringing the necessary funds for 
the work of the society from the pockets of 
his audience. 

Money, or any related theme, ought never 
to be mentioned in the presence of a com- 
pany of people gathered for the worship of 



THE OLD PATHS? 



God and adoration of the Redeemer of man- 
kind. The pastor who is driven to make 
financial appeals to his audience, is render- 
ing- his own life barren, and the prime 
object for which the society was organized, 
namely, the conversion of sinners and the 
upbuilding of the membership in their most 
holy faith, is for the time lost sight of, and 
the opportunity for declaring the mercy and 
love of the Redeemer is lost forever. God is 
not worshipped with men's hands as though 
he needed anything, and it comes with ill 
grace from a christian pulpit, to ask money 
from an audience in aid of the gospel which 
Christ declared is to be had without money 
and without price. Instead of having the 
funds necessary for the conduct of the 
society's affairs collected by the class lead- 
ers quietly and apart from the general con- 
gregation, the contribution box is made so 
prominent that one cannot well help feeling 
that before he can hear the lecture he must 
pay the lecturer. All this is sadly foreign 
to the gospel which Christ proclaimed. 
There are some preachers of such gross 



14 WHERE ARE 

mould as that they profess to receive great 
spiritual blessing's as the result of their 
immoderately importunate begg-ing from the 
pulpit; but it may be fairly suspected that 
their feeling is very akin to that experienced 
by the auctioneer who after great effort has 
been able to run the bidding- far above the 
value of the article offered, and by so doing 
has increased his own percentag-e and added 
to his reputation in his profession. Verily, 
they have their reward. It is, indeed, a 
sad commentary on the frailties of humanity, 
that these men are satisfied with the feeling 
of exultation over their success, rather than 
covered with shame that they had wasted 
an opportunity to cry 44 Behold the Lamb," 
whose messeng-ers they profess to be. 

The 4 4 all round men" are the victims of 
their environment, but not a little of the 
blame for their environment rests with 
themselves. They all too tamely submit to 
the demands made upon them, instead of 
declaring, 4 4 We will give ourselves con- 
tinually to prayer and the ministry of the 
word; look ye out men of honest report 



THE OLD PATHS? 



15 



whom we will appoint over this business." 
They chill themselves and their flocks with 
the thought and talk of money, and when the 
annual revival season comes around they are 
not in spiritual trim for preaching- or exhor- 
tation, and so send for an evangelist to help 
them out with the required additions to the 
church, while they devote their thought and 
energies to raising the money to pay the 
professional revivalist. As organized by 
Mr. Wesley, Methodist preachers were all 
professional revivalists. They were devoted 
to that one thing. Their converts were 
trained as exhorters, and, not infrequently, 
the words of the exhorters, warm with the 
love of Christ, were more powerful than the 
carefully prepared sermon. The "all round 
man" has no place for an exhorter (he has 
too much religion and too little culture). 
He cannot share with any other the work of 
the gospel. In the society over which for 
the time being he bears rule, the "demand" 
compels him to be all sufficient (except when 
the official board regard a revival as neces- 
sary to the finances of the society). 



i6 



WHERE ARE 



The book of discipline reads as it did of 
old, but the advent of the "all round man" 
in answer to the demand, has rendered very 
many of its wise provisions nugatory. Mr. 
Wesley, with a keen insight into the frail- 
ties of human nature, devised a system 
which was intended to strengthen it at its 
weak points. In every religious society 
there should be at least one out of every fif- 
teen members charged with the care of, and 
responsibility for the well being of their 
brethren. There is no one office which is so 
much needed by the membership at large as 
is that of class leader. The class leader 
has the most constant incentives to the best, 
and the members of his class need just the 
watch-care which a faithful leader can 
bestow. A class leader who goes about the 
duties of his office with an earnest desire 
for the best results, is liable to develop into 
an exhorter, than which no christian organi- 
zation has an office fraught with greater 
opportunities for good. A class leader and 
exhorter combined in one, was the very 
ideal for religious power, under the Wes- 



THE OLD PATHS? 



leyan regime. A society with one-fifteenth 
of its membership class leaders, has no occa- 
sion for an 4 4 all round man" as its preacher 
in charge. The intimate acquaintance of 
the class leader with his dozen or fifteen 
members, enables him to advise as to the 
amount of their liberality, and if he deems 
them to be lacking- in that reg-ard, he, bet- 
ter than anyone else, can urge them to a 
proper effort in those directions. What 
Methodism needs far more than 44 all-round 
men" is a full reinstatement of the origi- 
nal class leader system. With one-fifteenth 
of its membership in active work in the care 
of classes, constant revivals would be in 
progress, the finances of the societies w T ould 
cause the stewards no sleepless nights, and 
the pastors would have the opportunity to 
be, as was the design of Methodism, preach- 
ers in charge, marshalling- the forces under 
their command, and sure of victory. The 
present system, or lack of system, is very 
like that of a regiment without any division 
into companies, and whose colonel should 
attempt to lead the unorg-anized body into 



l8 



WHERE ARE 



battle. The result would be simply a sick- 
ening- disaster. The true Methodist system 
is a complete organization, in which each 
society is a regiment, each class a company, 
and the stewards, local preachers and trus- 
tees the regimental officers, with the preach- 
er in charge as the colonel. A society of 
christians organized and officered in this 
way is an invincible body, both as a business 
corporation and a moral force. 

It is time for the demand for "all round 
men " to cease, and that there be a genuine 
return to the benefits which cannot fail to 
accrue from the class leader system and 
the organization which results therefrom. 
Methodism began its wonderful career as a 
revival of personal religion, and the meth- 
ods adopted for the conduct of the societies 
were founded on no slight appreciation of 
the needs of human nature. The reasons 
for the existence of those methods will exist 
as long as men and women continue to 
"strive to enter in at the straight gate." 
They are founded in the needs of the human 
heart and mind. They are adapted to the 



THE OLD PATHS? 



19 



individual needs. They accomplish for the 
general needs of the societies what is en- 
tirely lacking- in the makeshifts which have 
been allowed to take their place. That old- 
fashioned croaker, the prophet Jeremiah, 
said in one of his exhortations, " Thus saith 
the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, 
and ask for the old paths, where is the good 
way, and walk therein, and ye shall find 
rest for your souls." The abandonment of 
the basic principles upon which the Method- 
ist societies were founded, and in whose 
strength and correctness those societies 
achieved such a wonderful success, is very 
like laying- deep and strong foundations for 
a lofty structure, erecting thereon the outer 
and inner walls, putting in the girders and 
braces, and when the building towers well 
aloft, deliberately digging out the founda- 
tions and relying on the superstructure to 
retain its poise and position, held in place 
only by its own structural excellence. 

Every true Methodist who desires the best 
for the future of the "United societies," 
should heed well the exhortation of the 



20 WHERE ARE THE OLD PATHS? 

ancient prophet, and look for the old paths 
and the good way, not only that the most 
good may come to himself, but to all those 
who are united with him in the work of 
hastening- the spread of the gospel. The 
changed times have not changed the facts 
of human nature, and the same methods of 
christian labor which proved so grandly 
successful in the hands of the fathers, are 
more thoroughly adapted to the needs of 
the present than any other. 



